814-Lancastkr Fuming, Saturday, February 21, 1998
Artist Expresses Soul Thro
GAY BROWNLEE
Somerset Co. Correspondent
BERLIN (Somerset Co.)
From fragile flowers to animals,
her soul seems to be expressing it
self when Shirley Tataleba puts
her paintbrush to work on the wa
tercolors she loves so well to do.
Rich hues and mysterious sha
dows of the hibiscus blossom, for
instance, may leave one caught in
its cares for untold moments, as if
it were the reality.
Of the magnolia, iris and others,
the same is true.
And her brush lovingly captures
the corralled horses the native
farm girl imagines grazing in a
fenced field.
“I was bom and raised on a
farm,” says Shirley, indicating in
the panoramic landscape visible
through the picture window,
Whitehorse Mountain where she
grew up.
“I love animals, especially my
little Mitzi,” she says, alluding to a
nearby Siamese house cat She
adopted it from the assorted feline
orphans housed at the humane so
ciety’s local animal shelter.
A devoted wife of 4S years to
husband, John Tataleba and
mother of their three children
Gail, Gary and Gwen Shirley
was a busy homemaker who hand
made most of their clothes when
the kids were younger.
Later she held part-time jobs,
but in the housewife’s deepest
heart, an artist was waiting to be
bom.
The opportunity came in the
summer of 1980 when Gwen was
college bound. Shirley enrolled in
a class that Laurel Arts in Somer
set was offering.
“I started with oils first because
I thought it would be easier,” she
recalls.
Then in 1987 she painted her
first watercolor.
I wasn’t pleased with my first
watercolor,” Shirley says, re
trospectively. I just had no con
trol It was very amateurish,” the
late Uootner, who in essence re
sembles the beauties pollinating
on her studio work table, reports.
A still life oil painting of old
crocks, however, was her first
sale, after a friend who worked at
a local bank had urged Shirley to
display it there. The reminiscent
piece soon attracted a buyer.
“Blggsrthan life, almost Ilka you can get into them,” says
Shirley Tataleba about her watercolor of pink hibiscus.
“I was happy, but at the same
time.” she remembers, “I felt a
sense of loss.”
Whether or not she felt like
working, Shirley developed a
paint-everyday habit that takes a
recess only on Sundays.
“I have to be almost psyched up
to paint,” she says. “Once I get
started the creativity begins to
flow.”
As her confidence grew, the
home florist, and to her daugh
ters an exemplar of home
making arts, Shirley began enter
ing competitions,, encouraged to
the place where her works, along
side those of other artists, could be
judged.
By 1989 the Pennsylvania
Federation of Women’s Club
Photography Competition had
awarded her a state second place.
Then came the Harley Hotel
Award at the Penn Hills (Alle
gheny County) Arts Council Show
in 1992, and on, until the awards
13 in all last year found her
named 1997 Somerset County
Woman in the Arts by the General
Federation of Woman’s Clubs.
While watercolor is her prefer
red media because she so likes its
softness and its transparency
“Its luminosity seems to be a
natural for capturing the iridescent
color of flowers,” she said; the
artistic explorer also delves into
other mediums to discover new
possibilities.
These include pen and ink,
charcoal, mixed media, and or
iental painting.
“I don’t limit myself to flower
painting,” the artist who “paints in
her mind’s eye,” she states.
“I see something that catches
my eye and a painting begins.”
When a critique of her work is
needed, her retired, reliable
spouse give Shirley an honest
opinion about it
On the thickly-covered framing
table, the skills she learned in
framing class are put to use as she
and John, together, encase the fin
ished paintings behind glass.
“Did you say I was retired?”
interjected John upon overhearing
his better-half saying so. “I didn’t
know that,” he added, teasing her.
The Tatalebas sacrificed their
personal comfort by turning the
master suite into an art studio be
cause its norther exposure allowed
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A W fp|
-y Tataleba did this watercolor of irises on je paper. Her one-woman„ jw
In the Holmes Gallery, Latrobe, Westmoreland County runs from Feb. 13 to March 27.
natural light to flood in. The
smaller bedroom, with determina
tion, was comfortably furnished.
“It’s very important to have
good lighting. I prefer to paint
with natural light,” she says.
Fluorescent lamps give supple
mental lighting directly over the
painting table.
“Working in a flower bed is re
laxation.” Shirley, a grandmother
who rides horseback with her four
grandkids, said, adding merrily,
“but John won’t let me plant any
more flower beds.”
The two and a half-acre site on
a small knoll that skirts the bor
ough should support any number
of decorative plots without crowd
ing John too much. They moved
into the ranch-style house in 1960.
Shirley said.
Inside, none of the wall hang
ings have the “Shirley Tataleba”
signature on them.
“I never hang my own paintings
in my house,” she says. “I would
be forever critiquing them.”
Neither does she give her paint
ings as personal gifts because an
other person’s taste in art cannot
be predicted, she said.
From Feb. 13 through March
27, Shirley’s work will be featured
in a one-woman show at the Hol
mes Gallery in Latrobe (West
moreland County) Hospital.
The Holmes show, her fourth at
the venue, will exhibit all
mediums, including watercolor on
rice paper, pen and ink, that Shir-
Watercolors
ley has done.
She and John, with heavy card
board and blankets will carefully
pack each of the 25 fragile, vary
ing sized pieces into the family car
for the drive to Latrobe. Their
road time to the gallery will ex
ceed one hour.
“We have our system,” the or
ganizer who is affiliated with
three area galleries, said. They are
From the Heart in Somerset, Tub
Mill Art Gallery, Salisbury and
the Dogwood Gallery at Seven
Springs Mountain Resort, Cham
pion. All are located in Somerset
County.
Life’s vagaries no doubt ac
count for the musicianship that
bypassed Shirley and John but
made a strong showing in their
kids.
Likek his two granddads, Gary
is a violinist. Gwen, an alumna of
Penn State, played clarinet in its
Blue Band.
Gary is unmarried and Gwen’s
husband is John Hartman.
Shirley’s father-in-law, who in
1912 migrated from Europe to the
United States, later handcrafted a
cello for her and violin for his son,
John.
Although ‘Tap,” is no longer
living, his survivors, especially,
granddaughter Gail, Dwight
Smith’s wife, is highly interested
in the family’s European roots.
That’s why, the information
that Shirley saw in a publication of
the Pennsylvania Watercolor So-
ciety about an artist in the
Ukraine, was so exciting for the
mother-daughter duo who, cur
rently, are working on a
genealogy.
To make a long story short, the
artist was recently contacted. He
shortly astonished the Tatalcbas
by locating John’s first cousin
now living in the Ukraine, and
helped them make the connection.
In hand they have a letter, but
are waiting for an opportune time
in the schedule of their interpreter
who will reveal the contents of the
neatly-written communication.
Besides the Pennsylvania Wa
tcrcolor Society, Shirley belongs
to the Bedfprd County Arts Coun
cil. Somerset County Artists As
sociation, Laurel Arts, Tub Mill
Arts, and the Allied Artists of
Johnstown.
Her paintings have appeared in
shows throughout western Penn
sylvania and Maryland including
the Japanese-American Interna
tional Watercolor Exhibition tour
and the Cumberland Valley Art
ists Exhibition in Hagerstown,
Md.
Many are also in privately
owned and business-owned col
lections.
Shirley credits God with the
limitless inspiration that nature it
self provides.
“I feel God has given us so
much beauty to enjoy,” she says in
summary of all the Creator has
given to his children everywhere.
D OTES
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